#2. Options

→ The Employee

It may seem obvious, but often in your career you’ll be faced with choices between more money and more responsibility. The right choice—at least in the long term—is almost always more responsibility.

→ The Employee

Benefits

Stability.

Easier road to pursue.

Paid vacation.

Medical insurance.

Drawbacks

Lack of freedom.

Income is capped.

→ The Freelancer

Market yourself.

Buy your personal domain name.

Your blog is your portfolio.

→ The Freelancer

Benefits

More freedom (set your own hours).

New projects to work on.

Potential to make more money.

Drawbacks

Have to find your own work.

Expense of running a business.

Trading one boss for many bosses.

→ The Entrepreneur

Ideas are worth nothing!

Do you have an audience?

Start small and solve a problem.

Idea validation is important.

Partnerships & Joint Ventures.

People Who Care About Your Solution

People Who Are Using Your Solution

→ The Entrepreneur

Benefits

Complete freedom.

Huge Earning Potential.

Work on what you want.

No boss.

Drawbacks

Most risky.

Completely on your own.

Requires many other skills.

Might end up working very long days.

VC/Funding ~ Bosses.

Pick one. Whatever is best for you.

I've been an employee, a freelancer and now I am an entrepreneur cum freelancer.

#3. Risk Analysis

Take a calculated risk

I knew the # of emails to send to get a client

You have tax-free $10 Million in your account, and 10 years of your life left, what would you do?

#4. WordPress!

WordPress is Open Source

Which means it’s code written by all sorts of people, not a single company. And while this can sound crazy, it actually works.

Community is the best part

Community is the best part of WordPress.

During the nine years I’ve been a part of this community, I’ve seen people selflessly contribute to core. I’ve also seen companies hire employees with the sole job to improve WordPress in favor of five for the future, and witnessed the community’s unfettered ability to share everything.

Contribute To WordPress

There are many ways in which you can contribute to WordPress.

Core Contribution

Design UI/UX

Improve Documentation

Translate WordPress

Help with Accessibility

Help in Support Forums

Theme Review for themes

Meetups, Teach & Train

Build a WordPress Plugin or Theme

Read WordPress Coding Standards

Turning pro is a mindset.

If we are struggling with fear, self-sabotage, procrastination, self-doubt, etc., the problem is, we’re thinking like amateurs. Amateurs don’t show up. Amateurs crap out. Amateurs let adversity defeat them. The pro thinks differently. He shows up, he does his work, he keeps on truckin’, no matter what.

“Simply put, a professional is someone who takes their responsibilities and career seriously and is willing to make the tough choices that have to be made—often at their own expense—for the purpose of doing what they know is right.”